Michelisz crowned champion as Borković leads GOAT Racing 1-2-3 in delayed Macau finale
Norbert Michelisz has won the 2024 FIA TCR World Tour title in a wet/dry season-finale in Macau, while Duŝan Borković led a spectacular 1-2-3 for GOAT Racing as the Spanish outfit delivered a tyre gamble masterstroke to bounce back after a difficult weekend.
BRC Hyundai driver Michelisz went up against Cyan Racing Lynk & Co’s Thed Björk in a last-race shootout for the championship, with additional drama coming from above as the paddock woke up to heavy rain on Sunday morning, causing the all-deciding race to be postponed.
That left a rescheduling exercise to get the race in at all on a crammed time table, but the organizers eventually managed to squeeze it in just after the FIA GT World Cup race.
Running eventually got going behind the safety car, with three Chinese drivers lining up at the front of the reverse-grid race through Hyundai N team-mates Andy Yan and Martin Cao, and Cyan Racing Lynk & Co’s Ma Qing Hua, his mechanics having worked all night to repair his Lynk & Co 03 TCR following a heavy start-line crash on Saturday.
Title contenders Michelisz and Björk rolled off sixth and tenth respectively, split by their respective team-mates Néstor Girolami and Mikel Azcona (BRC Hyundai) and Yann Ehrlacher (Cyan Racing Lynk & Co) as well as GOAT Racing’s Esteban Guerrieri who dropped three slots on the grid due to a penalty incurred after Race 1.
Once the safety car pulled in after two laps, action ensued in full pace on lap three of what was now an extended 12-lap race.
Yan kept the lead from Cao and Ma on a surprisingly tidy first run to Lisboa, but Cao managed to get ahead shortly after, while Michelisz moved up to fifth and Björk remained in tenth early on.
Crucially, GOAT Racing had opted to fit their Honda Civic Type R TCR cars with slick tyres, which appeared optimistic in the early stages but proved a masterstroke as the track began to dry up.
Borković took the lead on lap six, passing Cao into Lisboa, while Guerrieri later followed into second and Marco Butti into third, the Italian powering through from 12th on the grid.
Once up front, the GOAT cars were unchallenged, completing a 1-2-3 to recover emphatically from what was initially a difficult Macau weekend featuring crashes, penalties and issues involving all three of its drivers.
Borković also set the fastest lap of the race on the very final tour.
In the title fight, meanwhile, Michelisz moved past team-mates Azcona and Girolami up to fourth early on, while Björk worked his way up to eighth behind the BRC Hyundai trio.
Michelisz was on deteriorating wet tyres, but was being rear-gunned by his team-mates as the race entered the closing stages.
On lap nine, Max Hart retired with damage on the main straight, triggering a late safety car intervention.
That eventually set up a one-lap sprint for the title on a rapidly drying track as the race resumed, with Michelisz holding fifth at this point and Björk hanging onto the tail of the BRC Hyundai trio in eighth.
The Hyundais controlled the track on the run to Lisboa, with Björk unable to make any inroads and the order standing across the line – handing Michelisz his second consecutive world touring car title and his third in total.
The top ten were rounded out by MACPRO Racing Honda’s Martin Xie and Ehrlacher, who survived a slam into the Lisboa barriers on his way to tenth.
Alongside Michelisz’s World Tour success, it was additional joy for Hyundai as Martin Cao simultaneously secured the TCR China title despite slipping from the early lead to 11th by the chequered flag, as championship rival Jason Zhang (Teamwork Motorsport Lynk & Co) finished a lap down in 28th.
